Before Beasts, There Was Wind
by LoweFantasy
Summary: Kai is burnt by Dranzer, which is a first. If that was the only strange thing he could handle it, but then he is kidnapped by his old Biovolt assassin's ring just to find someone new has taken over, someone who isn't entirely human. Now a monster seeks to use Kai's killing beyblade to clear the earth for his species, and if Kai doesn't cooperate, the Bladebreakers will be killed.
1. Beasts Series Order

Order of the "Before Beasts" series:

1\. Sound

2\. Fire

3\. Wind

4\. Water

5\. Metal

6\. Storms

7\. Lightning

8\. Ice

9\. Light

10\. Time

(freaking site keeps breaking down my chapters to code. X.X Sorry about that. I fix.)


	2. Burned

Book 3

Before Beasts, There was Wind

By LoweFantasy

In Previous Books: _Kai has kept it a secret from his team that what the Abbey had really been training him into wasn't just to become a beyblading pawn to his grandfather, but as a ninja-like, beyblade armed assassin. Kai has killed before, but intends to keep his skill and past buried and forgotten-until an unknown beyblader and a mysterious girl sing out, not only Tyson and Max's bitbeasts, but their souls as well. The singing girl, named Ayah, turns out to be just as much a prisoner as Tyson and Max's souls and nearly dies when she tries to avoid stealing Ray's soul as well. Not knowing she has survived, her captors leave Ayah alone long enough to give Kai a map to Tyson and Max's souls, to which he uses his bad-a beyblade assassin's skills to break in, slice the Achilles tendons of guards, avoid armed men, and escape with the souls and bitbeasts of his team mates._

 _In the second book, Kai has hopes that his incursion has been unnoticed, but he is soon distracted by his teammates adoption of the abandoned, injured Ayah, who is as beautiful as she is mysterious. Kai is not so quick to forget her inhuman abilities to control sound and sing out human souls. It doesn't help that he finds he isn't as immune as he'd like to be to her beauty and kindness, which he attributes to her inhuman qualities. When Tyson throws a homemade tournament for his birthday, Kai pays little attention to it, until Ayah leads him to a dark flight of stairs where another assassin, trained in the Abbey just as Kai was, is closing in for their kill. At the last minute Kai smashes their sharp assassin beyblades with Dranzer, but in the fight something strange happens and Kai is overwhelmed by Dranzer's explosion of flame. Ayah insists she just heard something with her strange, ultra sharp hearing, but as the flames die down and Kai finds himself once more in her arms, he finds himself trusting her less than ever. Nothing will harm his teammates, even if they happen to be gorgeous, gentle, and soft._

1

The battle was over, but he was still there, his knees to the catwalk's grating and the stadium far below. He thought he could see the glitter of the assassin's blade's remains in the dim light. When Aya's hands took hold of his face, he reflexively pulled back and pushed her away, but his arm had gone heavy and his vision had blurred worse than ever. Everything throbbed, and nothing made sense. Dranzer shouldn't have caught fire like that, so…explosively. So out of control, especially when he hadn't meant to summon…what?

Her hands returned to his arms, icy and painful against his smarting skin. A sound rose to his awareness, low, coaxing, beautiful and soft as harp strings.

"Shut up," he tried pushing her back, but now even his arms were failing. He would fall. "Don't take—don't make any…"

So gentle. Even as what could only be her song continued, his fear begun to fade, as though drugged. With it went the last of his will to remain conscious.

He woke up to too white and too bright. Faces he didn't know shuffled about, their pink mouths moving. He couldn't hear her, and he cried out as all the fear caved into the blackness, brilliant as sharpened knives and glacial ice. Was this pain ridden vulnerable thing really who he was? No, this couldn't be it. This had to be death. He was dying. And it hurt.

"It's alright, Kai, you're going to be all right. Can you tell me how old you are?"

He didn't give a damn about his age. He didn't give a damn about these people. He wanted out—he wanted the pain to end—Tyson and Ray and Max, he had to get to them. He had to get to them. He had to…

"He's hitting 180, we need a sedative!"

But he was awake now, and knew entirely where he was. He was on a gurney in the emergency room, surrounded by the hospital flock once more, and as they fluttered to hold him down he saw no difference between them and the frivolous chicken-fan girls back at the stadium.

He pushed back the nurses, surprising them with his strength. His chest was bare, allowing him to see just how red the slashing burns along his arms were in comparison to the pinkened skin on his chest that had at least the protection of his shirt.

Dranzer had burned him. That was impossible. Dranzer had never burned him, even when he had been young and inexperienced.

But he couldn't worry about that now. The others didn't know what was coming for them and he didn't know how many assassins had been in that building. Who had they come for? Had anyone died or had they really come just for him? But, then, how could they expect him to come to the cat walk? Had that just been a coincidence?

Ayah. How had she known? No one could just have 'instincts' for that, but then why would they feel the need to threaten him in order to get to her?

But it didn't matter, because when they tried, they'd be stopped by his team—his foolish, trusting, naïve team who would protect Ayah with their lives without question, and be mowed down in the act.

He knocked the syringe out of the hand that aimed it at him.

"I'm fine," he snapped. "Let me go."

"Some of these are third degree, you must be in a lot of pain—"

"No shit! Get off me!"

The medical flock about him had gone beyond distressed by now. A tiny nurse he hadn't noticed before had thrown herself over his injured leg, and it took him a second to realize she had been half way through stitching the gash in its side when he came to. Blood had been smeared up her shirt and across her cheek, and her belligerent gaze met his with the only fierceness in the room besides him.

"You stupid kid," she snapped. "You'll get up when I'm done with you!"

He was so caught off guard by how much fury such a frizzy headed, tiny person could convey that by the time he noticed the syringe coming in again, it was too late to dodge it. There was a prick on his thigh and the world suddenly flopped over onto its side.

The next time he came to, he was in a small, private hospital room that had been darkened, and only a dim white light to the side of his bed showed that there was anyone there at all. Ayah had taken out her hair to swamp herself in its folds, as though to hide herself, and hugged her knees to her chin to complete the little-hill-of-white-hair-atop-a-chair look. She must have heard the moment he came to, for he found her staring intently into his eyes.

"The others are finishing the tournament back at the stadium," she said softly in her whispery rasp. "Something about saving investments and keeping the peace."

"Why are you here?" he asked, though it came out muffled as he found his jaw restricted. He touched his face to find bandages criss-crossing his skin, only his lips and his nostrils left revealed. He started up a stream of curses, which came to a halt as pale hands snatched up the bandaged lump that had become his own hand. In the process she had stepped out of her hill to kneel on his bed, to which he didn't take kindly to and yanked away from her touch, despite the spikes of pain.

"How did you know they were there?" he hissed.

"I-I didn't, I swear—"

"You lead me straight to them! And don't tell me you heard them, that stadium was full of noise."

"I didn't! I just…" her wide eyes crumpled with grief. "Is this what happens with bitbeasts?"

"You're lying."

"I'm not! I just...first it really was all the noise making me feel sick, but right when I chose to ignore it I got this feeling of someone—someone watching me, like when I was back in that…that cage, and…"

He snorted. "So now you have spidey senses to? You really aren't human."

She didn't answer that, though she did seem to retract a bit back into her hair. She didn't leave completely out of reach, however, and it was far too tempting of him to reach out and yank her stupid head to his to shake out whatever it was she could be holding back. He didn't like coincidences, and all these inhuman abilities of hers were providing one far too many.

"Why did your bitbeast burn you?" she asked.

"Dranzer has never burnt me," he said, insulted. "Even when we first met and I knew nothing about controlling a bit beast."

"So you don't know why—"

"I didn't say that," he said sharply, ignoring the steady hot pain building up in his face. "She didn't burn me, she caught fire, as though I'd overpowered her or something. I must have just underestimated my will in...the moment…" He didn't like the way her face had moved. His fury mounted higher. "You did something—"

"I didn't—I was just trying to—"

" _What did you do?"_

She jumped up at his raised volume and looked back at the cracked door and him frantically. So she didn't want the nurses to come? Wait, he didn't want that either. Last time he had seen them they had speared him with a moose tranquilizer.

"I tried to—to increase the throb in the air she made, I don't even think it came out right—my throat—I'm sorry, I was just scared—"

So he was now a burnt mummy because she had…"Get out."

And yet she dared to shake her head, the old determination glinting behind her shame. "I told the others I'd watch over you."

"I'll call security."

She set her jaw. "I'll put to sleep anyone who tries to move me."

"With that raspy voice?"

"Don't try me." And as she said it, her voice cleared a bit, although she winced. Sighing, she clenched her hands together and turned her head. "Who were those people?"

"I thought you'd know. Some boyfriend of yours sent them, didn't you hear?"

"I have no idea what they're talking about, honestly! If I knew…" she took a deep breath and once more met his gaze. "Just tell me if they can back up their threats or not."

"Yes, but I don't much trust them with you as much as without you."

She more than got his implication, and for the first time since he had met her, a flash of anger flickered across her face. "I will die before I hurt your team."

He sincerely doubted that. Or, at least, he wanted to, because if he didn't he might have to deal with this whole screwed-up issue with his conscience involved, and that just added more distraction than was necessary.

"So, you're going to stop them from getting me?" she asked, with more steel than he expected of someone who had just a minute before tried to hide in their hair.

"I'm not inclined to let them do anything they want," he said, trying to get a better view of just how much of him was bounded up by bandages. Ugh, this would seriously hamper him. He'd have to think of something clever to get him out of the mad house this time. "But it isn't like I'll be trying to help you out either. I don't care what happens to you."

To his surprise, the hurt he saw in her eyes was minimal, and she nodded as though that had been what she had wanted to hear. Guess he couldn't be too surprised, since she was the reason he was in this state in the first place.

As though hearing his thoughts, she said, "If you will let me, I can heal your skin."

"Yes, because having you passed out on my lap is just what I need."

"I won't. Skin is an organ made for mending, like the liver. I've never been that good at mending anything past skin level anyways, because that's when all the body's rhythms get crossed and muddled together."

He hesitated. His stomach had leapt at her words and brought up an unwanted image of her back in Tyson's bathroom, leaning into his side with her lips pouted out over him, as though for a kiss. By now all his talking and shifting had spurted more heated pain over his burnt flesh, and the added heat this memory brought to his lower abdomen didn't help.

Reading his hesitancy, she added, "It won't hurt. I'll be quick."

"And why should I satisfy your guilt complex?" He couldn't have her leaning over him like that. She'd have to remove the bandages and—what was he thinking? Had he forgotten all the other times she had used her freak powers around him? And was he really ready to trust this…this…

Her hands unclenched and reached for his face. "At least…at least just your face, so you don't have to face them like this."

His pride smarted. Of course. His team would come rushing in, nothing he could do would stop them, and they'd see their strong captain, the same man they looked up to for protection and direction, laying there like some plague victim, head to toe in bandages. And Tyson would try to make a big joke out of it and probably try to feed him while making airplane noises, ugh.

Somehow, his numbed, burnt skin felt it when her fingertips brushed against the first bandage.

"At least lock the door," he mumbled, hating her even as his insides trembled at her contact.

She did as he said, closing the door the rest of the way and locking it. When she returned she crawled up to sit right along his side, so as to better reach his face. Even through the mattress he could sense her unnatural lightness.

Burnt or not, he still got a good whiff of her cinnamon bun and rose scent as she leaned over and peeled off the first strip from his head. Unable to look anywhere else, he allowed himself the weakness of examining how her pale lashes almost reached her eyebrows. Her lips had become dry, but still held the petal shape which would curve as she hummed against his skin.

He rushed to control himself as the thought threatened to affect his composure more than he would ever allow. "Why are your bones hollow?"

Her fingers paused but a moment before continuing their cycle about his head. An aching chill proceeded where the pressure from the bandages lifted and his burned skin became exposed to the air.

"My parents…" she started, quietly, nervously. "They…but you already think I'm a freak."She met his eye briefly before looking back to her work, tugging out bandages from behind his head and jostling his hair in the process. Oh god, he could feel her fingers in his hair. "Does it really matter to you?"

Focus. "I guess not. I was told you didn't remember them."

"It's what I told the hospital. It's better if I didn't, for the others. Or maybe just for me. Would it be all right if I kept this a secret? I know it's not much, what you think of me, but…I don't want you to think worse."

He shrugged, then wished he hadn't. The morphine must be wearing off. Or maybe morphine could only do so much. Ugh.

"Don't worry, this will be over soon," she said with more gentleness than he cared.

"Just hurry."

Yet, despite his anger, despite his hatred and distrust, the way her brow puckered and her eyes filled with tears as she revealed more and more of his marred skin stabbed at him. For some reason, he couldn't find pleasure in her suffering, and it irked him that he should think of her suffering at all when he was the one burned like an overcooked sausage because of her ineptness.

When all the bandages of his head and neck had fallen to a small hill in his lap, the moment he dreaded came as she leaned towards him, her lips bunching as though to let out a little gasp of pleasure. He looked down to get away from the sight and the thickening heat it elicited in his gut just to find that Hillary's hand-me-down blouse really was a bit too big. Ayah had ample, ivory breasts, held in nothing else but the cupping hands of a white bra. Her chest constricted from them as she let out the first low hum onto his brow.

From then on, he could only watch strand upon strand of white hair drip from her shoulder and the view down her shirt as she moved across his face. The familiar prickling followed wherever her breath touched, leaving with it the strong scent of something slathered in dessert icing and sweetened to perfection.

"All I've ever done since meeting you is hurt you," she whispered between breaths. "Even when I wanted most to help. I can't let it happen again. I won't. I promise."

She leaned over to hum against his ear and his view became her slender neck and the curve where it vanished beneath her blouse. Her shoulders were as graceful and delicate as the rest of her.

 _God, what is happening to me?_ What was this insane sort of torture? Had her voice always been this husky? Had she always smelled so…how could he have ever…

It didn't help that the pain was slowly vanishing wherever she passed. It was only when her face came to his, too close and big sky blue eyes all but up against his, that he realized his body had turned to little better than heated lead. Even as he commanded his arm to push her off, it rose but a centimeter before flopping back onto the blankets. Blackness edged his consciousness, and he panicked. Had he let his guard down too soon?

"Shh, shh. It takes energy to heal, that's all. And…I'm going to take care of those men who threatened the others, so I used more of your energy instead of mine this time, that's all, I promise. Don't be afraid. No one will hurt Tyson, Max, Ray, Hillary, Kenny, or you. I'll make it right this time."

Those ever long eyelashes fluttered down and he felt her breath ghost across his lips, which tingled and mended as she did so. He could feel her warmth, feel the barest touch of those breasts against his chest.

Even as his consciousness dimmed, he tasted her sweetness, dusked with hibiscus and roses. Her lips lighted upon his in the lightest touch he had ever experienced in his life, with a softness even his dreams hadn't been able to predict.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "I'll fix this."


	3. Runaway for Another Day

2

"Where is she?"

Kai groaned and ran his sore, but somehow only bruised hand down his face. The hospital room had been flooded with sunlight that his eyes refuse to adjust to, and he had the distinct impression that a long time had passed. Ray sat in the chair Ayah had occupied, his legs and arms crossed and looking none too happy.

"What time is it?" He sounded gravely to his own ears. His throat was parched and raw as sandpaper.

"About ten. You've been asleep for three days. Tyson's proud."

Kai groaned again. That would explain why he was starving too. "Damn it."

"Where is Ayah?"

"Like I'd know."

Ray reached over to the side table and tossed something onto Kai's lap. Ayah's little yellow-paged notebook. Her last note spread across the front with her usual nigh-illegible handwriting.

 **Bladebreakers,**

 **I've only been able to take care of his superficial burns. Some damage may remain beneath the skin. He will sleep a lot and will be very hungry when he wakes up, but should be better. Please be sure he gets what he needs.**

 **Ayah**

He dropped the notepad towards Ray and rubbed his eyes hard, begging them to stop watering. "She started buzzing like a bee and I passed out, that's all I know."

And that was all he was saying.

"Before you went to the hospital she said something about some people threatening you, or did you think we'd just ignore the fact you were half-burned to a crisp in the catwalks for some unknown reason?"

"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't respond well to demands?" He glared up at the tiger through his fingers. "Even from you?"

Ray didn't withdraw, his returning gaze hard as stone. "Pardon, captain, let me rephrase my question: where did your friends take her? They wanted her, didn't they?"

"Did she tell you that?"

"I guessed from her look. I don't think she's that good at lying."

Kai let loose a sigh. God, he was tired. And hungry. And beyond patience. "I don't know. Go away."

"What did you say to her? Don't tell me you told her to get lost or hand herself over!"

"Whoa, what's with all the yelling? This is a sick peoples place, Ray, tone it down."

Tyson had appeared in the doorway, flanked by hamster lipped Max and wary Kenny.

"We brought food!" he sang.

" _Tyson_ brought food," said Max. "Not like he knew you'd be awake, though, they're just his snacks."

"More like second breakfast," added Kenny.

"Aw, shut it. It was my Kai senses tingling. She said he'd be starving when he woke up after all."

Ray got out of the way as Tyson pulled out the hospital bed's serving table and started laying out the contents of the grocer bag in his hand: half of a watermelon, an energy drink, two sweet bean buns, a bag of chips, an apple, two boxes of Pocky, and finally a sweating cup of ice cream.

"I'd eat the ice cream before it melts. But what's hanging, Ray?"

"How can you be so calm?" Ray asked, having found a place at the foot of Kai's bed with Kenny. Max had taken up Kai's other side. "He's the only clue as to who kidnapped Ayah."

"Kidnapped is a strong word," said Kenny cautiously. "For all we know, she just left."

Kai knew for a fact that couldn't be true. The girl didn't even want to sleep apart from Tyson and the others, let alone leave them entirely. She wouldn't have left for any other reason than what she had told him, and as he busied himself swallowing the ice cream without a second thought, he debated on telling his team. Knowing them, they'd probably just run around like chickens with their heads cut off in search for clues as to where the Abbey's assassins could have gone. Kai doubted Ayah would have gone far. She hadn't been under much protection with his unconscious self in the first place. It seemed almost superfluous that they would have had to threaten Kai at all.

His eyes widened. No. They couldn't have been there for him. They could have easily taken her, even with him around, why hadn't they? They had gone there for her, hadn't they?

 _'Even without that stunt you pulled two nights ago, he would have found you. You have his girl. If you don't cooperate with him, BladeBreakers will start dying. When we come back, don't make us have to kill one to get you to listen._ '

He nearly dropped the bean bun he'd been holding. They'd be coming back for him. Something had organized them, or rather someone, and they still considered Kai theirs.

"I'm telling you, she wouldn't just run away," Tyson was saying. "You didn't hear—" he caught himself, cheeks suddenly pink. "Trust me, she loved staying with grandpa and me. At least, for the few days she did stay with us…"

"If you just give me a moment, I can check," said Kenny, sounding more than a little on edge. He had opened up his laptop near Kai's foot. Max had given him his chair to use as he typed. "The hospital has security cameras. I can check to see where she went—"

"Why didn't you do this before?" asked Ray.

"Whoa, calm down. This isn't like you," Max said to Ray, putting a hand on his shoulders and giving them a friendly squeeze.

"Look, I'm not a hacker, and security cameras aren't exactly on wi-fi frequencies," said Kenny. "This is the first time I've been in the same room with one of those."

He pointed up to the corner, where a small black globe attempted to be inconspicuous beneath the TV hanging in the adjacent corner.

"Don't look at it, Max! They'll catch on!" Tyson flung himself at Max, who lost his balance and crashed to the floor.

Kenny put a hand to his head with an exasperated grunt. "Really, you two. Do you think they have nothing better to do than watch all 546 patient rooms? They're offline unless a particular patient needs constant surveillance, for whatever reason. So if you'd stop being weird, one of you keep watch and someone help me get this cord into its adapter port."

As Max ran to the door and Ray, with his feline balance and dexterity, pushed over the chair to reach the camera's globe, Kai was left to chew his food and wonder once more why they felt the need to do all this with him in the center. What was he, a homing beacon? The only one he even cared at all for being there was Tyson, and that was only because he had brought food.

Granted, he had been more than relieved at seeing them nearby, but it wasn't like he'd be able to do much to protect them in this state should an assassin's blade break through the window.

Which reminded him. "Where's Dranzer?"

"Right here, buddy." Tyson reached to somewhere out of sight beneath the bed and pulled out the navy blue blade. "By the way, what's with that wicked looking knife ring you got in there? I almost cut myself on it."

Kai wanted to throw what remained of the bean bun at his face. While Tyson was at it, why didn't he just shout nice and loud that Kai was a bonified beyblade assassin? So much for the idiot being able to keep a secret.

Kenny's typing froze. Ray glanced back, the small black camera's bowl in his hands.

At Kai's sharp glare, Tyson blanched. "I-I-I mean the one on your pocket knife! What, do you use it to open bottles or something, ha! A bit young to drink wine, don't you think?"

"Metal bottle caps are on soda and juice too, Tyson," said Kenny, but his typing resumed as though nothing had happened. Ray also turned back to searching the little gray square of a camera.

Tyson laughed and shot Kai a questioning look, but the captain ignored him. He had to, else he might break the younger boy's nose.

As Ray and Kenny went about hacking into the camera systems (of which Kai felt no obligation to save them from, as it distracted them from talking to him), Tyson fidgeted and tried to prompt something from Kai with more big eyes. Kai tossed him the box of Pocky to stop this. Another reason why he considered Tyson his best friend: he was the easiest to distract.

Which left him with some blessed peace to mull over what he had to do next. If Biovolt was up and running, or at least some of its soldiers were, and they'd be coming around to recruit him like the others, what could be the end goal? And who could be leading them? The idea of Boris or his grandfather doing that from prison was laughable, especially Boris, as he had always been a man obsessed with money. It had been his grandfather who had interests in politics. While Boris looked to make money from their secret services, his grandfather had intended to gain some world political power through threats, murder, and coercion.

Again, jail limited one's ability to organize one's secret organization. Especially the Black Dolphin Russian jail, which housed Russia's most infamous criminals, including Boris and his grandfather.

It was possible that whoever had had hands on Ayah in the first place had connections to Biovolt and the remaining children who had been trained there. It would explain how they knew about her. But what else would that entail? He could always break into the mansion again—but he retracted that thought. His leg had been cut, and by the swollen feeling he could sense past the remains of whatever pain killer they had given him, it had been deep. Muscle took time to heal. And it was unlikely that they would be caught off guard by him again. He had been trained as an assassin, not a spy. His ninja-breaking-in skills only went so far.

"Oh, this reminds me," Kenny reinserted the cord into another USB port. "Did you guys hear about what happened in Russia last night?"

Speak of the devil.

Ray just shrugged and Tyson didn't even pause in his speedy devouring of chocolate coated biscuit sticks as he said, "Nuh uh."

Kenny gawked at them. "For reals? What rock do you guys live under?"

Tyson paused to pick biscuit out of his molars. "Why did you even ask if you thought we'd know? Just get out it, Chief."

"Well, the President of the United States was assassinated on his visit to Russia."

That got the boys' attention. If Kai had had any doubts as to whether this could be important news, he didn't now.

"THE president? Of THE United States?" said Tyson.

Even Max leaned his head in from around the doorframe, though he didn't look nearly as surprised. Maybe being half-American gave him extra initiative to be up to date on the current events of his country.

"It's been all over the news," Max chirped. "His throat was cut in front of everyone, and the only person who was around him was the Russian vice president. They found the knife on him and everything, but he still insists that he didn't do it."

"He probably didn't."

All eyes turned to Kai, who did his best not to turn feral at all the expectant attention. But he had to say something. If the new leader of the assassin's had an interest in his cooperation, his teammates would be the ones in danger. Kai was a strong believer of killing ignorance before it killed you, if there was a chance of it doing so, that is. Tyson's ignorance was his much needed comic relief, after all.

"What makes you say that?" asked Kenny, a bit cautiously, he noted. That annoyed him.

"Stop playing innocent," he snapped. "Ray, you remember those accuracy exercises I taught you?"

"Yeah? What of them?"

"I'm going to need you to teach the others while I'm in here. And make sure everyone keeps a beyblade on hand."

"Good gravy, Kai, no one thinks your arrogant mysterious act is cool anymore, so just come out with it!" snapped Tyson. "This has to do with your Abbey skills, yeah, but what of it?"

Thus, in the end, he had no choice but to tell them. It was probably the most empty space he had voluntarily talked into since the frozen ice mess of Black Dranzer. But the assassination of the President had changed everything. Whoever had their hands on the Abbey assassins now was out for something big, and Kai couldn't always promise to do that which would keep his team out of harm's way.


	4. Pest Control

3

Even after Tyson's food, he ate two servings of hospital fare and the thickest chocolate milkshake they would give him. It was calories he craved, and some floating little person in his head, that he always imagined looked a lot like Tyson, wondered if this was what it was like to have pregnancy cravings.

Afterwards, he passed out, barely having the energy to make sure his blade was held tightly in his hand. He had slept holding it many times before and knew he wouldn't let go, no matter how much he may toss and turn.

When he woke up sometime in the middle of the night, he at first didn't know what had woken him. That was, until he saw the dark figure doing a poor job at hiding in the shadows of his darkened hospital room.

He slowly clenched the launcher he had hid beneath his pillow.

"Leave or die," he said, forcing his voice calm and steady.

"Come willingly or unwillingly," the other said, even quieter than him.

Kai narrowed his eyes. "Sorry, but I don't feel like walking anywhere."

The man's arm jerked into motion at the same time Kai did. In one move he had Dranzer on and his fingers on the rip cord, but what the man pulled out wasn't a blade. He threw his fist to the floor, faint white smoke vanished half-way through the air, and Kai's vision went opaque. He caught his breath, clung to his consciousness, desperately felt out for the muscles that would set Dranzer free…but it all slipped away.

When he came to, not only was he once more ravenous, but his arms, legs, and face throbbed in great burning waves of pain, though it was especially pronounced in his tightly bandaged right leg where the assassins had cut him days before. It was almost as though his burns had been returned to him.

He saw a utilitarian, cement ceiling, lit by blander naked bulbs. Gagging at the taste in his mouth, probably whatever leftovers of what they had used to knock him out, he rolled over and retched.

"Disgusting."

He reeled himself back, beating control into every spasming muscle his focus could reach, and rolled to a sitting position to see the speaker.

And found himself staring at a rather unremarkable man. He was of the usual Japanese breed, with dark hair, slanted eyes, and pinched, olive colored skin. The strange bulky cape thingy he wore on his back like some elongated turtle shell was new though. He wore the perfect uniform Kai would have picked for breaking into the mansion: a tight fitting, long sleeved turtle neck, well-fitted cargo pants, and flexible skin tight shoes, all in black. Against the pale gray surroundings of the cement basement they were in, his captor, as he presumed he was, stood out like a great gash into space.

The dark man gave him an ugly, twisted grimace. "I'm not going to be able to talk to you with that noise still in my ears. Please, if you're going to puke, let me know so I can leave in time."

Kai wiped at his mouth, more to get a feel for the state of his body without looking away from his foe than to clean anything from it. He was still in the hospital gown, which was demeaning. His skin was cold, so he hadn't been in contact with someone else for a while, so how long had the other man been standing there? Knowing would tell Kai precious information about his personality.

"Go on," said the man, flapping a hand at him. "Ask me what I want. We got to do this right, don't we?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, the usual script. 'Who are you, what do you want?' I say something diabolical, give you my evil plan right off the back, maybe cackle a bit. Or would you rather we cut to the chase?"

Kai didn't answer that. He thought his death glare would do good enough.

As expected, the dark man was unfazed. "Alright, then. I know what you are and what you can do, and I want you to kill whoever I tell you to without getting caught or I kill all your friends. Now that that's covered, will I leave you in there while I go and slaughter all of your friends—and take pictures, of course, can't do without pictures—or will I let you out of this pen and give you your first assignment? Oh, and if you were thinking about running," he tapped at his neck.

Confused, Kai lifted his hand to his own throat to find, with some level of chagrin, a thick, black collar, not unlike the one he had cut from Ayah's throat. In his case, however, it was made of rubber coated metal and not plastic.

"So, you're the one who tried to kill Ayah?" Kai said.

An ugly spasm crossed the other's face. It narrowed his eyes to slits and curled his lips back to reveal unnatural, sharpened teeth. The first shock of color flared to his cheeks.

And then it was gone. It had come and left so quickly, anyone would have suspected they saw nothing at all.

What was left was a certain level of irritation. "I would be the last being to kill her. She is the reason I'm using animals like you in the first place. But, being familiar with her collar, I suppose that saves me the effort of explaining to you why running away from me is useless. And, if you want to stay alive, you will forget all about her. So, death to the top spinners or obedience?"

"Not much of a choice," said Kai. Despite the knee-jerk hatred he held for this man, he felt a level of relief that he was proving to be efficient and business-like. Those sorts were always easier to deal with than the mad explosives that men like Boris proved to be. Though that flicker of passion he had seen spoke of someone not so different. But, then, Kai was use to these types of people. You could only have so many variations to evil overlord.

God, he really was in some children's cartoon.

"Great." The man flicked a hand over his shoulder and a figure dressed in the same dark clothes as him scuttled over to pull Kai to his feet. Kai barely had the time to recognize the pale features of an old Abbey mate. "Too bad I don't have a cage down here for you. A good set of bars can be fun."

A shiver crawled over him, as though someone had slipped something icky down his shirt. Had he interpreted that glint in his eye right? What kind of man would feel the need to slip in a perverted joke in a situation like this?

Kai remembered he had mentioned Ayah and white hot heat curled dragon-like in his stomach.

"What have you to do with Ayah?" he asked, ignoring the man's warning to forget about her.

Lucky, he didn't seem too offended. Just bored now. "Oh, everything," he said with another flippant wave of his hand. A rather gesticulate man, then. "Consider her Eve and I am Adam. Last of our kind, all that, but hurry up. I don't want to waste more time on this than I have to."

The dragon within Kai gave a heated roar. He instinctually reached for his launcher and blade, but, of course, reached nothing but air. The empty spaces gave his brain the needed time to catch up with him and ask the rest of him what the hell was going on. So the girl had a partner or lover of sorts now, what of it?

The man had started walking away, expecting him to follow, unafraid of giving Kai his back. Kai would have taken this as a chance to jump the guy foolish enough to think he needed a beyblade to kill someone, but seeing as he had others like Kai working beneath him, it was likely he would know of Kai's trick. Not to mention Kai had a gimp leg and still healing limbs. As Kai got a closer look at the weird humped cloak on his back, he became engrossed in a new confusion that put murder out of his mind for the barest of seconds.

Feathers. Whatever it was on his back, it was made of feathers, and reached nearly to the floor.

"Oy. Move."

Despite the swollen throbbing which was his leg, he pushed himself up and limped forward, the slaps of his bare feet against the cold concrete echoing like applause about the chamber. The black feathered man led him to a door with a single window that Kai hadn't seen before, due to the position the other had been standing.

"It's really not such a bad gig, if you think about it, all the dramatics aside," he told Kai as he opened the door. On the other side, two others also dressed in the same black uniform snapped perfect, mint salutes. Kai didn't recognize these two. Recruits from the days after he had left? Beyond them, a continuation of the concrete basement went on in the form of a hallway that opened at the end. "You kill some people like the shadow you are and you get to live. I mean, that's more than the rest of the humans get."

"Humans?" The word had slipped out of him before he could catch himself.

"Of course." And right as he said this, the feathers on his back shifted, rustling like some living creature of their own.

Kai froze, breath catching. That wasn't a creature he had on his back.

This man said he was like Ayah. Ayah had hollow bones. Like a bird.

"Anyways," the man continued as though nothing had happened, stepping through the door as another black dressed, masked assassin opened it for him. "Three meals a day, you all sleep in the same room, the others will show you where you're fed and you'll get your assignments there. Do them successfully, yay you. Fail, it's the usual punishments: flogging, torture, death—I'm not particularly picky on where said death falls either. Could go anywhere, really. Like a splash."

"Who are you?" he asked as he stepped through the door. The other black assassins followed after him to line up behind the man as he continued his way up some stairs.

"Cain. But to you, Master, unless you're feeling suicidal."

"How original."

"This isn't a really original situation. Though, I guess coming from me, the to-be forefather of my entire species, everything I do is original. Shakes up how you think about it."

"Sounds like you just like the sound of your own voice."

"One would have to after living most of their existence alone on a deserted island." The man flashed him another sharp toothed grin over his shoulder and feathers.

Kai just glared. It was these normal, casual sounding ones you had to fear the most. It would have been preferable if the man had been obviously evil right off the bat. Some blood wouldn't have gone amiss.

"Is there anything I'm forgetting?" The feathers shuffled again. "Death. Threats. Food. Sex…no, I think that's it, unless you need some proof that I'm serious?"

And just as he reached the top, the black feathers snapped out, broader than the whole staircase could contain. A sharp pitched screech, like nails on a fingerboard, rent the air and the one assassin out of the three that Kai had recognized suddenly dropped back. Scarlet burst out from a thin line up his chest like spilt wine, slow and glass-like.

The assassin tumbled down the stairs, blood bursting from him with each hit in an impossible manner. The blood hung in the air, glittering in dew-like beads.

The body hit the floor with a final thud and didn't move. Streams of blood finally fell from the air like rain, sprinkling a trail down the stairs to his final resting place.

The alarm from the other two assassin's told Kai that this hadn't been planned, nor did they have sufficient reason to think themselves safe.

Cain half turned to point down the stairs. "See that? Dead. You can check if you like, but I'm pretty sure he's dead. You're probably wondering why I would even need you if I can do something like that. Truth is, I don't. I just, you know, like listening to the sound of my own voice and I'm not one for patience. It's quicker when you have some help. But I also am super into paying someone for their work, so if you just do as you're told, when all of this is done you'll get whatever patch of land you want and women or friends or whatever, I'm not entirely picky. The earth is pretty big, after all."

Kai couldn't help the crack in his words as he croaked, "Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm killing humans." That fanged smile spread out, wider than ever. "All of them."


	5. Old Faces, No Faces

**My cat keeps trying to paw away with my boiled eggs...**

4

Kai saw more old faces about him in the 'cafeteria,' or rather the big, cement room with no windows, three doors, a ceiling only a few feet above their own, and no furniture. There was a sort of school-lunch-room window where one could drop by to pick up their bowl of food from whoever had been assigned to work the kitchen, but other than that they all sat on the floor and ate their food in quiet. Occasionally the soft murmur of voices would rise to bounce about in the empty, man-made cavern, but there didn't seem to be much to talk about. There were almost thirty of them, though Kai had stopped counting when his eyes had fallen upon a familiar shock of bright red hair.

Tala saw him at the same time that Kai found him. Without waiting another second, Tala stood from his corner with his bowl and stepped about others to Kai's side, which was devoid of other bodies. Even after the Abbey, no one was keen on being friends with Kai, if there were friends at all among such a collection. Or it could have been the fact that his baby blue hospital gown stood out like a siren among all the black.

"I'm surprised you got away for so long," said Tala quietly. "You're not exactly hiding, if you can do that with…a team like that. Nice outfit."

Kai gave his usual 'hn.' He didn't feel up to talking, even though he had plenty of questions he wanted the answers to. He knew that if he opened his mouth, something unplanned and possibly cowardly would come out.

"Bryan and Spencer are dead," said Tala, voice low enough to hide any feeling he didn't want Kai to hear. "Cain killed them like picking apples at a store."

"You?" Kai managed to grunt. He felt he should give some sort of thoughtful consideration for Tala's loss, but found the broad buzz of everything fighting to be heard at once in his head taking too much space for much of anything else. The guy had just lost his only connection to humanity, and Kai still couldn't figure out whether he wanted to laugh, start punching people, or run through the whole seemingly underground compound till he found Ayah. Besides, it was just one more reason to kill Cain.

Tala said nothing. And Kai didn't care enough to press it. What mattered was that Tala was here, and that he had at least one ally he could trust.

The same must have been going through Tala's head, for he said nothing more as they finished their bland meal of a spiceless chili. At some point, Cain stepped out with a stack of papers in hand from one of the doors that didn't open up into the hallway that Kai had come down. Any muttered conversations went dead.

"I don't repeat myself, so if you got questions, ask someone next to you." He brought out his stack of papers, feathers rustling. "Petrov."

A girl with boy cut hair jumped up and quickly made her way to Cain, who handed her the paper as he called out a second name.

"Tala," Kai said.

"Missions," replied Tala. "Get the kill done in the designated time. Don't fulfill the mission, you die."

"Nice he keeps things simple."

"He's…impatient."

"That's what he said."

Cain looked up sharply, his dark eyes landing on Kai. "Shut up!"

Kai and Tala didn't need more than that.

Eventually, Kai also was called up to accept the paper, which turned out to be the last in Cain's hand. Cain didn't pay him a second thought before dismissing them and retreating back from the doorway in which he came. Kai thought he could see something like a curtain behind him before the door was shut. Only then did he look down at the paper.

 **Carl F. Hemmingway**

 **Secretary to the Prime Minister of Great Britain**

Below were details, including the address, day (roughly two weeks from now, which would give Kai time to heal), and time that the secretary would be in Japan visiting officials from some board of directors that the minister had ordered specialized oil workers from. It even had a small map giving details of the building he'd be in. Underneath the typed mission were three printed rules that Kai guessed would be at the end of every mission brief: 1. Don't get caught. 2. Kill your target. 3. Don't waste my time.

"Does he allow us to have, I don't know, research tools?" Kai asked of Tala, who had stepped up next to him.

"We have some laptops in the other room, I suppose. That's it. But world peace has given people a lax sense of security anyways."

Kai groaned and face palmed. This was worse than he thought. "He's expecting us to kill high ranking officials with all the knowledge of a little piece of paper and a laptop?"

When Tala gave him a dry, wolfish grin, Kai noticed for the first time how sharp his cheekbones had become and the deep circles beneath his eyes. To be expected.

"Really, Kai. For the best blader Abbey produced, that should be more than enough."

"Doesn't mean I approve of his lack of professionalism." Kai stuffed his mission paper in his pocket. "He knows even printing these off is a liability, right?"

"There's an incinerator you're suppose to put it in before you leave."

Kai perked up at the word 'leave.' Before he could ask, Tala interpreted the look on his face.

"These collars identify us." He tapped his own. "He must have some sort of wireless connection to them, because if you leave it's not 36 hours before your intended kill date, the moment you step through that door you'll get a nasty shock. Those who aren't back within twenty-four hours of their intended kill are terminated."

"Nifty with his tech, this…bird man?"

Tala shrugged. "Close enough. But it isn't him making all this stuff. He's got that All-Stars nerd girl in there. Watching her makes me vomit. I've seen dogs in heat act less desperate than her."

He must mean Emily. That surprised Kai to some degree. He had never thought much of anything about Emily, though the idea that someone in the Bladebreakers semi-close ring of teammates creating death collars for a supernatural being…okay, so nothing should surprise him after that. The whole situation was f-ed up.

"I'm going to bed," Kai made to stand, doing his best to cover the pain of his leg. How he missed pain medications. Several bladers glanced up at him, but probably just because he made one hard to miss dot of blue hospital gown.

"I better go with you," said Tala, rising up with a yawn. "Wouldn't want you to get yourself killed by taking a leak in the wrong place."

"I'm sure I can tell the difference between a toilet and an electric fence."

Tala grinned, and this time it reached his eyes. "That almost sounded like a joke. You really have changed."

Kai had nothing to say to that. It had been his intention to change. The ones who did not change would lose—at everything. The game of life was all about who could adapt the quickest. He knew that. He had always known that.

Tala followed him to the main doorway and out into the hallway. They passed the little stairwell that led to Cain's 'prison,' where he kept recently acquired assassins, like Kai, and to the other end. Before they reached what Kai guessed was a door to the outside world, another pair of double doors came up on his left. Overall, this 'underground bunker' screamed low budget. But, then, he supposed that would make sense. Where would a giant winged monster get the money or the people to do this sort of secret thing without being ratted to National Geographic or some other large scale media outlet? Big winged monsters…not exactly low profile.

The doors opened up to the most utilitarian sleeping quarters Kai had ever seen. It was a simple rectangle room that stretched out on either side of him longer than it went deep. It was only twice the size of Tyson's dojo and had metal, triple-deck bunk beds against the walls. A quick count told Kai that 33 people could sleep comfortably in here, albeit the beds were crammed foot to head, leaving the door which had to lead to the bathroom rather narrow and cramped. Kai limped towards there, dying for a bit of time to relieve himself and rethink everything in privacy.

"There should be some cubbies in there," said Tala. "There's one with your name on it. Your uniform and beyblade should be there."

Kai waved a hand over his shoulder. How boyscout of Tala.

Kai squeezed into an unlit room and had to paw around for the light switch. When it turned on, he was once more unimpressed by the facilities. Two shower poles with spigots sticking out from them and toilets on either side, unprotected by stalls.

Then, on second thought, the first non-Abbey inhuman trait of this hell hole hit him.

"Tala, please tell me there's a separate bathroom somewhere for the girls."

"Nope."

Kai gaped at the tree of life showers. No curtains. Just a pole with six shower nozzles coming off of it. And then the toilets in broad view.

"So…we take turns, right? Girls than boys?"

"If there's time. Usually, we don't have time. Cain's impatient, and that means he isn't up for babysitting."

Kai took a breath. Back at the Abbey showering had been something of a ritual rather than just a hygienic practice. The boys and girls were separated and taken to the shower room, where they cleaned themselves and had their bodies inspected after a day's worth of training. Showering had been mandatory. At least Cain hadn't adopted that particular practice, though Kai suddenly wondered why he would have even thought that. It wasn't like the…thing had an interest in naked humans, or said human's privacy.

But talk about a nightmare if you ever had a bad case of the runs. The girls and boys had probably been desensitized to each other's private moments by now, or were getting there.

Tala told Kai to hurry with whatever he had to do, as 'bedtime' was fast approaching. Kai only half listened to him as he found his cubby among the stone shelves set into the same wall as the door. There, with only a moment's hesitation, he stripped, including the bandages around his legs. Tala watched for a moment before stripping himself. By the time Kai had relieved himself and gotten to one of the trees, Tala had turned on a spigot and stood beneath the water with his eyes closed. Kai took one next to him. It was to no surprise to him that the water was ice cold.

"Why even bother with showers?" Kai muttered.

"Guy doesn't want to be stuck in a tiny, windowless stone box with a bunch of smelly animals," said Tala, his voice bouncing about the room much like Kai's.

Kai fingered the collar about his neck. At least there was space enough to stick a finger in and clean about it. The injured muscle about his stitches cramped and protested against the icy water, though it felt good against his aching, pale, but still burnt feeling skin.

When the creak of the door echoed about the bathroom, he turned off the water and stepped away. Three boys stepped in, one after the other, and then finally the girl with the boy-cut hair. She barely spared the naked Kai a glance as she followed the others to their respective cubbies and started to strip. Kai kept his gaze purposefully averted as he dressed into the black clothes. They were a bit big, but rather that than too tight. Dranzer waited for him, along with his beybelt, and he took those up as well, but not before he noticed a new added weight. From one of the pockets he left empty for change and the like fell out a familiar thin, obsidian beyblade.

The needle thin blade edges of its attack ring against his skin sent shivers up his spine. All his insides cramped into a tight ball.

Kai's personal hell was now complete.

Limping, aching, trembling and cold, he hugged his belt and Dranzer to his chest as he made his way to a bottom bunk that didn't look as though it had been slept in and fell into it. The blankets were made of a thick, rough wool that scratched at his hands, but served the purpose of trapping whatever heat his body emitted. There was no pillow. There were no sheets.

It was all so perfect, he began to wonder when he'd wake up back in Tyson's lavender scented bed. Hell, even waking up in that damn hospital would be preferable to this.

 _Ayah…_

A ghost of a touch jostled him from a doze he hadn't realized he'd fallen into. Tala leaned over him, resting his head on an arm that was braced against the bunk above his. Something uncomfortably raw weighed down the wolf's face, making the shadows beneath his eyes more prominent than ever. Bodies shuffled into beds behind him in the semi-darkness, accompanied by the low murmur of conversations.

"Let me see your leg."

Kai didn't move, but let Tala pull down the blanket and roll up his right pant leg. From his pockets he pulled out fresh rolls of bandages. Kai had almost fled the bathroom, so he hadn't bothered to rebandage it.

Kai was mildly surprised when the boy also pulled out a tiny tube of triple anti-biotic, which he proceeded to smear over the feverish skin with cold fingers.

Despite how unlike Tala it was to be so gentle, not to mention unlike Kai to allow someone to bandage his wound in this setting, the whole procedure passed without neither of them saying a word. Kai found his soul too numb and befuddled to care about his precious pride, and some quiet part of him wondered if Tala needed this distraction from his own misery.

At last, Tala rolled down the pant leg and did the first Tala-ish thing in tossing the blanket back over him carelessly. Without another word, he pocketed the triple anti-biotic and climbed into the bunk above him.

"Thank you."

Tala made no sign of having even heard him.


	6. Lone Wolf

5

A night's sleep help restore order to Kai's mind. Nightmares had an odd tendency to do that for him. Maybe it was because, after a night of living the horrible, he was better able to deal with the somehow less horrible reality.

It was the familiar grind of blades that woke him. Tala was already up and leaning against their bunk, arms crossed as he watched a small gathering of assassins in the middle of the room. Two girls had let their blades loose, though their blades weren't the usual black, but the silver-gray of something else. Naturally, the obsidian assassins blades, while perfect for invisible kills on flesh and out running anything short of a bullet, they weren't fit for repetitive beybattles.

Kai watched them while he took stock of all the various aches of his body. His arm had fallen asleep from having used it as a pillow all night. One of the girls had short cut blond hair. All the girls had short cut hair, but the light color brought Ayah drifting up to his mind, swathed in her long rivers of white.

He sat up. "Do you know of the girl Cain has with him? Long hair, creepily pretty."

Tala glanced at him, then looked back to the battle. A few other assassins watched from their beds with laptops on their laps. The lighting of the room had improved a bit, but not by much.

"Think Darrin said something about that. She walked into that den of his five days ago and hasn't been seen since. You know her?"

"Hn." Kai pulled his beybelt around to check through his gear. "His den, you mean that room in the back of the cafeteria, the one he retreated to last night?"

Tala snorted. "Not many rooms in this place to confuse it with." Then he shrugged. "No one's been back there except the nerd girl. She comes out for food, but that's it. Then the door locks automatically behind them, and it's a metal monstrosity, that one. Makes you think he's afraid of us or something."

"We do kill things."

They watched the girls' beyblades bounce about each other for a bit in silence. The girls didn't seem too intent on attacking one another or training. Even as Kai watched, he couldn't help but think the two were finding some odd comfort in their duel and wanted it to last for as long as possible. The onlookers didn't seem too keen on it to end either. They occasionally said a word to those around them, but otherwise said nothing.

"Some say there's a back exit in there," said Tala in something barely above a whisper.

That would make sense. Having only one exit in this damn place would essentially make it a giant cement coffin. Not even Tyson would be stupid enough to design an underground bunker like that. But Cain would be the only one interested in surviving should anything happen, and keeping only one exit to them made it easier to watch them.

"He sounds lazy," said Kai.

"Yes," confirmed Tala.

This was good. The creature's profile was becoming clearer. Impatient, lazy, perverted, egotistic, and obviously uncaring to the death of humans.

"Is this room bugged?" Kai asked.

Tala snorted. "What would be the point?"

Granted. "But keeping that door lock implies—"

"Implies he doesn't want us getting into his stuff or bugging him while he's on the john," said Tala, his tone gone harsh. "He controls the _air_ , Hiwatari—"

"And assassin's blades are designed to cut through it," said Kai patiently—he just wanted knowledge, after all, and you always had to start with asking the stupid questions. "What's stopping someone from taking a pot shot at him?"

The dueling beyblades gave a sudden 'chink' of finality and jumped into their owners' hands. The air in the room had suddenly grown tense and fragile as thin ice. Kai glanced up through his bangs to find every pair of eyes in the room trained on them, grim, and then turn back to whatever they were doing.

He squeezed his hand about his blade. It protested with pins and needles at the movement, but he ignored it.

"Bryan and Spencer are what happen when you take a pot shot," said Tala.

Kai closed his eyes. "Like picking apples at a store?"

"I suck at analogies, you know that. People don't slice at all like apples."

 _You're a real jerk for making him relive that, his teammates were all he had!_ said Tyson's voice in his head, but he pushed it aside. He wasn't in Tyson's world anymore. "But what happened to their blades?"

"Excuse me?"

"Their blades. Where are they now?"

"Nerd girl swiped them up the moment they stopped spinning. Don't know what she plans on doing with them, so don't ask."

"But they didn't hit him? You don't dodge those blades, Tala, unless you're telling me he has super human speed as well as air whatever."

"Then you should also know that those things are nigh invisible in flight," Tala pushed himself off from the end of the bed. "I didn't get a good look. But ask around. Everyone in here knows an idiot that tried to get a good shot in on the guy and failed."

Kai shook out the last of the pins and needles from his pillow-arm and went to his morning ritual of accounting for all his bey gear. "I take it those who tried to get into his den are dead too."

"They would be if they had actually succeeded."

This made Kai stare. Part of their training had been how to get past basic security doors. There was nothing more embarrassing to an assassin than to infiltrate security just to find a stupid security door in between them and their target.

"It's not electronically locked," said Tala, already guessing his line of thought. "Not mechanically either as far as we know. No one can even begin to guess how he locks it, seeing as he has freaking powers and magic fairy wings, guess anything is possible. But if you think of something, let me know. But don't get caught sniffing around it when he happens to come out."

"When does he come out?"

"At dinner. And whenever he damn pleases. He isn't a prisoner here."

Kai inwardly groaned. And since all of them would have tried to put a schedule on him, when Tala said that, Kai could take it as Cain's schedule really was random. So much for creature of habit, but he did show some human like qualities, and for now he'd have to depend on that.

"I'm free to walk around, right?" he asked.

Tala gave a lazy hand gesture towards the door to say he could. The two girls had launched their blades once more, now that they knew the noise of battle wasn't about to cover up anything important. Kai knew a few of them would have recognized him. He was more or less infamous for scrabbling away from the Abbey's grasp right after hitting top of his class, but what did that mean to them? They weren't friends. Even if Kai had stood and announced he knew a way out, children from the streets and trained by the Abbey were naturally suspicious and resistant to trusting anyone. No, Kai would have to blast a freaking hole through the roof or throw Cain's body at their feet before they gave him any sort of attention.

 _Home sweet home_ , he thought bitterly.

After taking another trip to the bare bones, and thankfully empty, bathroom, he set off limping as little as he could down the hallway and to the cafeteria. Tala trailed behind him, the set of his shoulders and the way his glacier eyes trailed along the wall besides them said he had nothing better to do. Something in Kai's chest, possibly the part that had spent too much time with those children he called teammates, whispered of a vulnerable outreach from Tala to the one person he could possibly have claim to. Kai had once been his teammate, after all. Now the last one.

And it was because of that whispering within him that he didn't tell the red-haired wolf to get lost.

The cafeteria didn't seem any larger without being stuffed with black bodies. A few assassins lingered about the square hole in the wall and in the kitchen doorway with the same bowls, eating, what Kai presumed, breakfast. Despite having no interest in what gruel could be served, he stopped by their first for a bowl, which was handed to him by another pale shadow from his past. The oatmeal was bland, watery, but sufficient. One must always keep their body fed. Only an idiot starved themselves of precious energy.

While he ate, he casually walked about the unnaturally wide door that marked Cain's den. Ayah was on the other side. To know only a metal slab kept him from her and the bastard made it hard to swallow.

Tala flinched when Kai kicked the door with his good foot. Having the close fitting, sound-absorbing shoes that had been supplied to the rest of the Abbey kids, it didn't make the noise he had wanted. His steel-toe boots would have been better.

"It's solid enough," said Tala.

"How do you know that?"

"I've heard it close for over a month now, it's thick enough—oy."

It was as close to a shout that he was going to get from Tala, but it didn't stop him from making his way back to the kitchen. The half a dozen or so souls watched him with mild interest as he swallowed the rest of his bowl and tossed it into the metal bin they passed for a sink. He went to the poor sod stirring away at the pot of oatmeal.

"Can I borrow that spoon?"

The lanky, dark skinned boy narrowed his eyes at him. He eyed Kai, probing for his reasoning, but then knocked off whatever would come off and handed it to him. Apparently he must have decided that whatever stupid thing Kai was about to do to get himself killed was no skin off his teeth.

"Kai." Tala's face somehow managed to look even paler against his dark clothes. "You can't break through it. It's metal, surrounded by cement."

Kai ignored him, as he did to people with no imagination. Honestly, how could he know that if he hadn't even gotten a good listen to it?

Unfortunately, his path to the door was cut short as it opened. Kai quickly turned to hide the spoon behind his leg, listening as hard as he could for sounds from the type of hinges or the doorknob. The other assassins flushed themselves to the walls.

But they might not have even bothered. It wasn't Cain who stepped through the door, but the short figure of Emily of the All Stars.

For someone who Kai had been told was living it up following after her crush, she certainly didn't look the part. Like everyone else he had come to meet in this hellhole, Emily had obvious signs of being away from sunlight for far too long and a thinning to her face. She wore casual jeans and a sweater, however, not the black, close-fitting uniforms of the others.

Her eyes narrowed on Kai as she stepped out. The door closed of its own volition behind her. "What you staring at?"

Kai humphed and was about to break eye contact. After all, it wasn't like he could just ask her whatever he wanted without it getting to Cain. But what stopped him was a need to verify it.

So instead he pulled on the cocky grin that always drove Tyson up a wall and turned his head to look at her from the side. "You like this sort of thing?"

"Oh ha ha. Whatever."

His hopes deflated at that. She walked past him without a second thought to get her own gruel breakfast. He tried to search for more clues, but all he could get was the impression that she didn't seem happy. But, then again, who would be happy if they're dark 'fallen angel' idol found himself an equally glamorous mate? Any girl wouldn't be happy with a beauty like Ayah around.

Thus, he preoccupied himself with hiding his spoon and not looking like a complete moron lingering around like he had nothing better to do. It was easier than he would have thought, as none there seemed too inclined to conversation with Emily around. She must have been aware of the less than welcoming air, for once she got her oatmeal she headed back to the door. Kai held his breath, watching her carefully. But all she did was pull the handle and the door opened.

The moment it was closed, he looked to Tala, who shook his head. But despite clear warning in the other boy's eyes, Kai only waited a minute before heading straight back for the door.

The first thing he did was test the door handle. The metal spoon made a solid clink against it, and it only took a second to verify to him that it didn't contain any wiring, so Emily hadn't entered with print recognition. He ran his fingers along the edges, feeling for air currents, before giving the door a solid bang.

Tala and the onlookers gave a collective hiss, but Kai didn't see what they were doing. He was listening.

 _What I wouldn't give for Ayah's ears about now,_ he thought.

But it sounded solid.

Clenching his jaw, he moved more center and gave the door another whack.

"Do you want to die?" hissed Tala.

Kai ignored him. Listening to your fear never got you anywhere. It was why he had gotten to the top. It was why he had escaped.

He hit the door again, this time just to the right of the handle.

A bang echoed back like a tiny, hollow drum.

Kai smirked. Now he was getting somewhere.

Tala dared to latch onto the back of his shirt and yanked him back. Since Tala had two good legs and Kai only had one, there was only so much the phoenix could do to stop him from pulling him away. Without a word he snatched the spoon out of Kai's hand, tossed it back towards the kitchen, and even went as far as to pull Kai away from the cafeteria entirely.

Kai wouldn't have it. His gut violently wrenched at the thought of putting more walls between him and Ayah, who had been alone long enough with the man who thought him her 'Adam.'

"Since when have you been such a nanny?" he snarled, wrenching himself from Tala's grasp and whirling on him, despite the protest of his leg—

To find a Tala he didn't remember.

The boy who had gone through human experiments, countless tortures, and twisted into accepting a computer chip for part of his brain, had gone bloodless and gaunt. His eyes had skipped the bright of tears to white, as they widened in the empty space of their sockets. He had clenched his teeth, but not out of anger, but as a freezing man clenches them to stop their chatter from biting off his tongue.

"This isn't a game," he breathed through those teeth. "We aren't even prey. We're _pests_. Rodents! And you just went knocking on his door!"

And from behind them came the barest whisper of hinges as that same door opened.


	7. Blood Induced Fury

**Because Kai doesn't strike me as a man to put up with tension.**

6

This time, it wasn't Emily.

Cain came in all his black, slanted glory. He alone lacked the appearance of a cave creature. Even from a distance his olive, sun touched skin glowed compared to the whiteness of the others, who had somehow shrunk into the walls without having to move at all.

Tala made a quick suck through his nostrils that almost whistled.

Cain's dark eyes looked to the oatmeal spattered serving spoon on the floor, then found Kai and Tala, who had only managed to make it half way across the room. He snorted.

"Of course the new one would wake me up."

Before Kai could think of what to say—before he could even register that Cain's hand was rising along with an intense rush of paralyzing thrill in his muscles—Tala stepped around him.

Blood flew out from the wolf like the juices in a fresh tomato to splatter in Kai's face. In that indefinable moment of time that occurs when the universe seems to find something particularly horrible or beautiful, Kai could see just how many shades of red Tala's hair deviated from his blood.

Then the magic passed and Tala fell to his knees.

Kai...Kai stared. And stared. He could just register that, no, his immediate impression that Tala had simply burst apart wasn't true. Only a long, deep slash over his right shoulder and a bloody hole where his right ear had been remained.

"It won't happen again," said Tala, in an incomparably steady voice, as though nothing had happen.

Cain grunted and made his way over, yawning. Even as he passed and his very feathers brushed against Kai, he still couldn't find the comprehension to move. Kai couldn't help but be hyper aware of a drop of Tala's blood crawling down his face.

And then Tala wobbled and time came crashing in. All Kai's carefully built pretenses fell apart. His powerful pride buckled.

And for the first time in a long time, the true weight of his fear overpowered him.

Kai dropped to his knees and took hold of his once teammate.

"Where did you get the bandages? Fire—hot water—we need to boil something—needles, tell me they have needles." Oh God, he could see bone. That had to be bone. He couldn't focus. He couldn't see.

Despite being the one becoming drenched in his own blood, Tala took his turn to stare. "Kai?"

Kai started yelling at the others in the cafeteria. "Why are you standing there? He's going to bleed to death! _Do something!_ " Even as a few special souls scrambled across the cafeteria and into the kitchen, Kai found himself stuck on how he would manage to carry Tala with his gimp leg. He had to carry him. Somehow it had entirely escaped his mind that someone else could do that.

Of course, only Tala would find the gumption to smile in this situation. "I told you it wasn't a game."

The dark-skinned assassin on cooking duty called that it would take time to boil the water, but another assassin came to their side with a pile of obviously used kitchen rags. Kai gaped in aghast at them. Don't tell him the bastard didn't even bother with kitchen soap! What the hell was this place?

Tala tipped. Kai caught him against his chest. Luckily it was too the left, leaving the chasm of his right shoulder away, though it didn't stop the streams of blood from flecking on him. Tala's eyelids had started to droop.

"Jeeze, it's just a shoulder…" he muttered. "No need to fuss."

"He cut off your ear too, you moron."

The doors from the hallway swung wide with a clang of metal on stone as the others returned with what could only be handfuls of bandages. There were two which crowded about Kai and Tala, one of them being the short haired blond which had reminded him of Ayah.

Somehow, it was that blond hair that brought some semblance of focus back to him. Cain had just walked out. Cain had just left the room.

 _Another day, you idiot. Another time—another chance—Tala's bleeding to death because of you—_

"Did you see him leave?" his mouth asked.

One of the assassins who had carried in one of the wool blankets from the bed to help swab up the blood frowned at him, while the others ignored him.

His heart thudded hard and sharp against his skull. _Don't ask, don't try, you should have learned your lesson, if you had just listened—if you hadn't been so stupid—_

But a coal turned in the ashes of his pride. It whispered something like a hush of flame or a hiss of a memory.

 _I will not be manipulated. I will not be controlled. I will not be tamed._

"Did you see him leave or not?" Kai asked again, harder this time.

"Went outside, yeah." The boy gave him an incredulous look. Anyone who had watched Kai's reckless spoon banging with half a brain cell could piece together what he was thinking. "You're going to die."

"When will he be back?" When the kid just turned his attention to the others to mopping up the blood dripping down Tala's half-conscious form, Kai pulled a hand from underneath Tala and snapped his fingers. " _Hey!_ "

"He hasn't taken a flight this week yet, so he'll probably be a while," said the blond girl in a clipped, hot voice. "You might have just killed this guy because of your recklessness, do you really want to—hey!"

Kai had stuffed Tala onto their laps. His mind was clearing now—as much as one could clear with the licking flames rising up from his gut. The fire burned against his skin where he felt Tala's blood trailing down. It rose up in great gusts, as though spurned on by wings. Now he had but one more reason to break through that door. If Tala were to live, it was unlikely to be in this animal pen, bandaged up by blankets.

He didn't even bother to wipe the blood from his hands as he snapped out his launcher and Dranzer, still dressed in her heavy, tournament grade gear. He stepped away from the huddle on the floor and took his stance, eyes just to the right of the door handle.

"Stop, dumbass! You're going to get us killed!"

"You don't think we haven't tried that before?"

To that, Kai just snapped in Dranzer and readied his cord. "None of you were me."

With an exhale to narrow his focus, he took aim and let it rip.

Something had happened to Kai in that moment. It wasn't as though it were the first time he had another's blood on him, nor was it the first time his soul had risen up after a sound crushing from his fear. He had been defeated. But this wasn't just any ordinary opponent who had pissed him off or shattered his pride, this was Tala dying. This was Spencer and Bryan dead. This was Tyson, Max, Ray, Kenny, and Hillary.

This was the white haired girl asking him for forgiveness while her lips hummed away his wounds.

Dranzer burst forth in flames. The navy blue blade turned to a dark disc, throwing sparks like stars. The sky-echoing cry of his bit beast rent the air like metal as it hit besides the door handle in a fiery explosion.

Black clothed bladers cried out. The air turned hot.

And then Dranzer clinked back to the floor, whirring, the flames dying down to thread-like tongues about its ring.

Where there had been metal before to the right of the door handle, there was now an empty hole, rimmed by blackened and red-hot metal. Black streaked across the door and walls from the blast.

He didn't stick around to be impressed with the others, who he knew without looking had their jaws on the floor. He hid his surprised well as he marched to the door and yanked at the handle, though it didn't budge. Even with gloves he could feel the heat of the metal. Cursing, he crouched down and peered through the darkness to see a basic metal bar. It was so simple he almost laughed. Of course no one would be able to lock pick or wriggle through a simple door bar. The hollow in the door had been created by the simple need of installing the handle and turned out to be no bigger than his blade.

Smirking, he reached through the hot hole and wedged his fingers beneath the door jam, ignoring the smell of his sleeve burning against the hot metal.

 _Can't think of a time I got that much fire from the get go,_ he thought as he shoved at the jam.

The jam wouldn't move up, so he tried to the side with some success. With one last wrist popping heave the door jam slid back enough and he had the door open. Dranzer whizzed in first with Kai right behind.

The hallway wasn't glamorous. It was a cement square, like the rest of the bunker, that lead out from the door. The only difference being was the lone square skylight window, with thick weather worn glass, that spread from one side to the other. Besides it there was but one light. There were three doors, one at the end and one on either side, all metal and solid.

Kai looked back to realize, with a thrill of surprise, that the only reason he had been able to move the doorjam with one hand at all was because Dranzer had burned through it as well. Solid metal, held to the door by braces that ran directly into the cement wall. No wonder indeed.

 _Dranzer…!_

He looked back to his blade to find it had taken place in front of the door to the left on its own, without his direction. Figuring that to be as good a guess as any, he limped to it and shoved against it. Metal doors without hydraulic hinges were the pits.

The first sign of color told him he had chosen right. The left room held all the luxury and extravagance that the rest of the bunker lacked. Silk and satin hid the cement walls and ceilings, giving the illusion of a gypsy's tent or a man-sized blanket fort. Thick Persian rugs covered the floor, carrying on the theme of a kaleidoscope colored tent. They only went so far until they became covered by a large, shapeless, downy-feather pillow of a soft cream, covered in a variety of other pillows and blankets.

And atop these in the very corner, her wrists tied and hanging by a rope from the ceiling, was Ayah.

She didn't notice him right away, which was probably for the best, as Kai received yet another shocker to an already overwhelming situation. Her mane bunched about her in a crazy mess of curls that looked gray against the pallor of her skin, which even further brought out the purpling bruises. Hillary's blue blouse and skirt had been done away with in favor of something little more than a large piece of burgundy silk that had been looped and tied about her like a toga. It could have even been one of the pieces that had covered the wall at some point.

Then he threw in a wad of will and Dranzer whizzed across the room to the wall, cutting the rope. Ayah's arms flopped down, but Dranzer didn't stop there, tearing through the tacky cloth wall coverings. Fed by Kai's horror and will, it continued terrorizing the room, almost of its own volition.

In a few steps he was at her side. Her eyes flickered open and met his.

"Oh," she breathed.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

But she just blinked at him, as though unable to believe it. Noticing how swollen and abused her lips looked only made his impatience grow.

"Can you walk? We're leaving!"

"Kai?"

"Who else! Look, I can't carry you—"

"Make love to me."

The beyblade making streamers of the wall coverings fell with a loud chink.

"Huh?"

"Have sex with me," she said. "And it will kill Cain."


	8. To Whom Thought Could Control Us

7

…What kind of fucked up nightmare was this?

Somewhere atop its mass of fabric destruction, Kai sensed Dranzer slow and stop. It was just too much too quick.

But Ayah had shaken off the sleepy daze of before and had brought her wrists around, still tied by what could only be thick, rough hemp. He could see blood where the rope had rubbed through her skin and instantly got to work undoing the knots.

She leveled her face with his as he worked, urgent, and yet somehow…distant. He couldn't help but see Tala in her haunted gaze. Something had been broken soundly within her as well, never to recover.

"Listen, Kai, our kind make life bonds with our mates that kill us when our mates are unfaithful. If you have sex with me, Cain will die. Yes, we're not human, yes it's weird, but you need to do it before he returns."

Sex. Life bonds. Inhuman. And the walls behind the cloth was just as cement as the rest of the place. What a lame attempt at interior decoration.

"L-l-look," he managed—damn it, he didn't stutter, the world really was about to end. "I can't just—"

She gave him no room to think. Breaking free from the loosened rope, she shot her fingers into his hair and kissed him hard. Her taste alone blew through him, forget the mind-numbing zap of his hair tugged in her knotted fingers. Before he knew it she had dragged him down atop of her, earnest, urgent, pulling on him with a desperate need that his rebellious body couldn't help but respond to. It was too much—he had never been this close to a woman, let alone a woman who meant so…who made him feel…

The bruises. The rope. _Cain will die…_

He snapped back with a gasp.

"Stop!"

"Cain's going to kill your friends!" she said, her lips more red than ever, but oh God, her eyes! Swollen to the point from beyond tears and reflecting nothing but broken. "My race is done, we're dead, but he will kill them all if you don't—"

"Stop telling me what to do!" He shoved her back to find his arms almost shaking too much to do that. "You can't just—what will happen to you?"

She took hold of his shirt. She was shaking too. He began to see a pattern to the bruises. They didn't splotch her like a cheetah. He could see them on her upper arms and all about what skin was left unbroken about her wrists and on her neck.

She tried to catch his lips again, but he pulled further away. Her injured grip broke easily.

"What will happen to you?" he asked again.

She didn't answer. But, then, she didn't have to. He already knew, even as she stared up at him blankly, dressed in nothing but that damn silk toga.

 _How did this get so bad so fast?_

"Why haven't you sung him to death yourself?" he asked even as he snatched up his blade and unhooked his launcher once more from his belt.

"He controls air. Sound needs matter to travel. If he creates a vacuum—"

"Whatever, we're leaving."

"You can't beat him—"

Kai whirled on her, kicking aside a pillow in the process. "Watch me!"

"This will all be over if you just—"

" _I'm not going to have sex with you so get your ass up! NOW!_ "

His yell startled her to her feet, but then she wobbled. Kai stuck an arm out for her to catch herself on, but withdrew it the moment she appeared steady. He opened up the heavy door that had closed behind him—

To come face to face with Emily, who narrowed her eyes at them through her lenses.

"I should have known that out of all the people who could melt through iron plates, it'd be one of the Bladebreakers." She gave a heavy sigh, then refocused her gaze at him, all seriousness. "The moment he comes back and sees someone has broken in, we're all dead, forget it if Ayah is missing. You know that, don't you?"

"Then we'll all run," said Kai, not giving himself a moment to think on what she presented to him. In two strides he was to the third door, the one that ended the hallway, and opened it.

A normal, tiled bathroom greeted him.

"Don't bother with this one." Emily shoved a finger over her shoulder at the door she must have come out of. "It's just the lab. If you're looking for his second exit, it's the skylight. With how much you've really fucked this up, you might as well go through the front door."

"But the shock—" he started, just to be cut off by a thick, black instrument being thrown into his hand. It was like a short, heavy flashlight, except with a pair of tongs at the end instead of a light.

"Put it to you collar and click. Will come right off." She turned to leave.

Kai hesitated. "Why are you doing this?"

She gave him a droll stare. "You really think I want to let him kill everyone? Honestly, the only thing he has going for him is raw power—and my brains. You're just providing an opening." Since Kai didn't' seem to be doing anything with the collar disarmer anytime soon, she snatched it back and put it to his neck, to which he flinched back. "Hold still. I'm just a scientist, not a murderer."

"Didn't you create these collars?"

She snorted and pulled back with his collar in hand. "Who told you that? I bought these and just adjusted them to how the monster wanted them."

"How'd he even know of you—know of the Abbey?"

Emily gave him an odd look. "Do you really have the time to be asking these questions?"

"Yeah. Come with us."

"And die? Ha ha, no."

"You said he was going to kill you anyway once he sees that Ayah is gone. Your best chance is with me."

"My best chance is if all those beybladers in that room decide to go at him with you, but will that happen? Not likely. He's scared them all into submission by now, even if their blades can cut through wind."

"So they did?"

"Of course they did! He was just able to push hard enough on the air to dodge them—and he's wearing black! Would you even notice if he started to bleed?"

Kai inwardly cheered. He knew it. He knew something was fishy.

He grabbed Emily's arm. "If you tell them that, they'll come with us."

She frowned at him. "Uh, I'm not stupid. They all think I'm Cain's whore."

"Then tell them you're not! Tell him we all have to strike now!"

"Ugh! Fine!" She yanked her arm from his grip, but her voice had tightened with fear. "It's going to happen eventually."

With that, she turned on her heel and marched towards the doorway. Kai exchanged looks with Ayah, who clutched to the silk at her chest, shivering.

"It can't be that easy. He's been doing this for months now," said Ayah softly.

He said nothing, afraid of what would come out if he did. He may have just royally screwed everything up for everyone, throwing himself at something no one knew how to fight. When had he become so much like Tyson? Wasn't the dragon supposed to be the one who stupidly threw himself at a fight without thinking?

Kai took hold of Ayah's hand and followed Emily.

Despite the threat, a crowd had gathered in the cafeteria. Kai quickly counted twenty or so people. The rest must still be away on missions. He quickly spotted Tala against the wall besides the kitchen door and moved to pull Ayah towards him, but Ayah beat him to it by running out of Kai's grip and to Tala's side before Emily had even started speaking. He had to withhold a laugh at the startled look on Tala's face as a half-naked Ayah dropped down between his feet. Poor man probably thought he had died. The rest of the boys around Ayah weren't fairing much better, and they had to be nudged hard by their female co-workers before realizing that Emily was speaking.

Her speech wasn't eloquent or lecturish. "So, because of Kai we're probably all going to die unless you choose to let me remove your collars and go outside for battle, because we all know he'll kill you before you can even get off the island. Lucky you, however, Kai also told me you seem to think your killing blades can't get to Cain. This is a lie. He just diverts them a bit. That's all he can do. Yay you, blah blah blah, who wants their collar off? Oh, and you might save the world."

Someone snorted. "Is this a joke? Because it's not funny?"

"I'm so not in the mood for jokes," said Emily. "And if you don't hurry I'll just leave without you. Not like I can care anymore. Or do you like the way you're living now?"

It was a rhetorical question.

Within seconds the black clothed bladers had lined up to Emily, who disarmed and removed collars one click at a time.

Kai didn't stick around to see how it went. He quickly limped over to Tala, who had the strangest look on his face while Ayah dipped her head over his shoulder. The closer he got, the better he could hear the vibration of her lips.

"She might not be able to fix you completely," he said, crouching down onto his good knee with some difficulty. "But at least you won't die."

Tala blinked at him several times. Then back to the white mane where his eyes trailed down her bare, ivory back. The silk covered just across her hips. Tala let out a quick, whistling breath and forced his gaze back to Kai, who had had to restrain the urge to slap him. "So I'm…not dead?"

"Her name's Ayah. She's the girl I asked you about."

"You mean…" Tala suddenly stiffened. "This is—Cain's—"

"She's not like him. She does sound, not wind. I wonder if they all had elements like that."

The short haired blond blader, who had remained by Tala the entire time and had been listening to their conversation, gave a little hmmph. "Kind of sounds like bit beasts."

That gave Kai pause. But only for a moment before he remembered why he was there.

"Ayah, don't use up too much of your energy. I need you to be ready to run."

The humming stopped with a little sigh and she pulled back, frowning. "I'm not the best runner."

"Why don't you have wings?" asked Tala. To his credit, he didn't sound dazed, which made Kai's respect for him grow.

She pulled the bandages that she had peeled off him back up. Tala's wound had sealed up some, but still bled lightly. "I guess you could say I haven't finished growing up yet. I did my best to mend the arteries, but I can never get the rhythm right for muscle. I'm sorry."

Tala had to crane his neck to get a good look at his shoulder, but cringed at the movement and gave up on it.

"Kai, what did she just do to me?"

"What she said." Kai tugged the bandages from Ayah's too-gentle hands and set to wrapping Tala's shoulder up like a thread around a spool. "You better be up to running too. I definitely can't carry your cyborg ass."

"You're in a good mood."

"Hn." Another thought had occurred to him as he watched Ayah out of the corner of his eye. Her white hair and the amount of bare skin she wore made her stand out like a sore thumb among them, forget the burgundy toga. He only took a second to wonder whether or not he wanted Cain to know she was with them before looking to the blond girl besides them. "Could you get her into some blacks?"

"Too late," she said, nudging her chin to Emily, who had finished with the collars and was now looking at her. As she walked away, Kai pushed himself to his unwilling feet and, with the help of Ayah, tugged Tala to his feet. The red-head wavered, pupils expanding as the blood rushed down from his head, but he somehow stayed upright.

"Get Wolfborg out."

It was credit to Tala's training and experiences that he didn't question that order, but slipped out his launcher and blade with practiced hands. The black attack blade had already been equipped to his wolf. Kai had already gotten to work slipping on his own stainless steel attack blade, which, while lacking the speed and inconspicuousness of the obsidian blade, had more durability and plenty of cutting potential. As he did so, he noticed the attention of each blader turning inevitably to him. An old mask of bravado fell in place as his fear once more rose. This lot weren't the Bladebreakers. He didn't know if he could trust them with his life. He didn't know _them._

"Alright," said Kai, holding his loaded launcher over his shoulder like a cocked gun. "Let's end the idiot who thought to control us."


	9. The Unwanted Hero

8

He did stop by the bunk room so Ayah could be decked up in the blacks, and since it was more than obvious to the others why he ordered this, they all waited, and as they did so he wondered why they so readily fell into place behind him when he was the one who had put them in this situation in the first place. Assassin's of the Abbey weren't, by nature, quick to give their respect or obedience. But this wasn't respect. This was cold, metal strapped fear being held into place. He had melted the door. He had made the initiative. And when they had looked to him, he took up leadership like an old mantle.

He, after all, was the Captain.

Ayah returned breathlessly. The black made her look just as sick and pale as the rest of them. She had had the smarts to tie up her long hair, which the blond girl had taken a spare shirt and tied over it like a handkerchief.

"You know basic evasion tactics," said Kai, lifting the cowl tucked into the front of his shirt as the others did so. "Keep to the shadows. Keep your blade at the ready. Ayah," she flinched at being addressed by him. "That boosting thing you did back at the stadium. Think you can do it again?"

"S-Sure." She looked about with wide eyes. "For all of you?"

"For me. I'm the only one who's prepared, and I'd rather you not burn alive someone else."

She flushed beneath the stares of the others and nodded.

He did a good job minimizing his limp as he made it to the door at the end of the hall. He had to appear strong. They looked to him. He slapped what could only be the open button and waited with baited breath.

To be blinded by brilliant, noon-day sun.

It only took a few seconds before his eyes adjusted enough for him to squint at the scraggily foliage that was common to spits of islands. He gestured Tala around him, but he might not have bothered. The path to the docks spread out before him at a steep incline that ended in a beach of gravel.

"We go to those boats now, we'll be a big sitting duck waiting to be sunk," Kai breathed. "I don't know this area. Can we hide ourselves for an ambush?"

"Half of us can take cover in the trees. The other half I'm not so sure, maybe the rocks? And we shouldn't be too close—"

"But a barrage from every direction is our best chance to get the hit we need."

Ayah stepped out. "I can listen for him and let you know when he comes. I can make a lark call as a signal. Until then, everyone can search for a place."

Kai nodded and looked back at the small black crowd filling out behind him. "How does that sound?"

There were answering nods. Someone made sure to close the door behind him. Best not be too obvious. Kai noticed just in time that it was Emily, who had slipped in after Ayah to dress in black as well.

When no one objected, Kai gave the sign to spread out, and they did so in various directions. He needn't have worried too much about them staying close, because only a few seconds after jumping into the nearby woods with Tala did he come to another beach. The island was tiny; little more than a tree covered rock in the middle of the ocean. Behind them trailed Emily and Ayah, who walked most quietly of them all. In his own excuse, Kai had a stitched up leg making everything more difficult.

"I'd appreciate any information that could help now, Emily," said Kai.

"If I thought it would help I would have told everyone back in the bunker. Everything else is just semantics. Ouch." A branch had wacked her across the head, leaving leaves and twigs in her hair. Kai thought about telling her to put her glasses away to avoid a reflection, but she must have read his mind for she took them off right then.

"Then back to my last question," he nudged his chin to a nearby bush that made a small alcove with a neighboring stone about as tall as he was. "How did he know about the Abbey?"

She didn't answer as they settled into their respective spots in the little alcove. Kai urged Ayah into the farthest corner, where she'd be covered by the lean of the rock and bush completely. Tala went down with her, being the second most noticeable with his bright hair, and Emily and him took the edge. He had trouble finding a comfortable position, being unable to crouch with his sliced calve ready to pop through its stitches, if it hadn't already.

"Well," said Emily with a puff of air as she settled down on her haunches. "He originally only knew what the rest of the world knows about the Abbey, and that was how they had figured out how to make artificial bit beasts. Didn't like that, he did, so he went in to dig up how they did it and instead found out about their deeper secret: that of training assassins."

"Why would he be interested in bit beasts?" asked Tala, somewhat out of breath from blood loss.

Emily frowned. "Everything. Cain and Ayah are essentially where bitbeasts come from. Actually, they sort of _are_ bitbeasts. At least, they're what will become bitbeasts."

All three of them, including Ayah, turned to stare at her. But she continued talking, probably expecting their surprise.

"So it would only make sense that Cain would want to figure out how some humans managed to artificially produce the essence of his people—though that isn't exactly what a bitbeast is. Oh, it's so hard to explain. They're like…an impression or the manifestation of the soul or—not, that's not it, because they're not souls, because they're not dead or alive. The animals or creatures that the spirits form are I guess what you could consider their spirit animal, or what fit their personality or essence best in life. Like I said, it's really hard to explain, I don't entirely get it either."

"Is that why he wants to kill us?" asked Tala. "Because some idiots made some artificial bitbeasts?"

Emily sighed. "That's the thing. They didn't make a bitbeat, they just thought they did. All they did do was attract the scattered essence of one of these dead whatever-they-ares. Even so, I don't really think that's why. I mean, this is seven billion people we're talking about. There's got to be more reasons than that to want to kill us all."

"It's because humans killed us," said Ayah softly.

A brush of breeze pushed through the trees, rustling the branches into applause. Not far away, the steady hush of the ocean broke as a wave crashed onto the rocky shore.

Emily was frowning at her. "I find that highly doubtful looking at how dangerous one of you can be. Besides, they interbred with our ancestors. They had to, otherwise there's no way at all that I can see any of the bitbeasts listening to us, let alone getting themselves suck into blades for sport."

Tala and Kai winced. When put that way…

But Ayah was shaking her head, eyes to the ground. "Those who were able to mate with humans did, but even they weren't safe from those who feared us. We controlled the elements. And when they found that our human descendents could call on our ancestors—I mean, we didn't even know they could do that, we didn't even know what bitbeasts were, we just…"

"They had all the more reason to kill you," said Tala, expression grim in the dancing sunlight through the sparse canopy.

"I still don't get _how,_ " said Emily impatiently, as though they were discussing a physics student's theory rather than historical fact. "Back then we couldn't have had the weapons we have now, and just one of you could kill a whole army of us!"

Ayah shrunk back at that. Kai was about to say something to get Emily to shut up, as it was obvious the girl had no thought or care as to what her words were inflicting on the poor girl, but Ayah suddenly spoke up.

"Ever wondered why some of your people struggle so much with math? Why only some of you are good at inventing tools and computers and why others can't figure it out for the life of them?"

Tala gave a sardonic smile. "Are you saying your kind are to blame for every math-retarded student?"

Ayah hugged her knees in closer. "While my kind has raw power, we do not have the inventiveness or ingenuity that humans have. Humans have this…amazing ability to create machines and build mammoth monuments—they do the impossible. Granted, our kind created this planet in the first place—"

"Whoa, hang on," Kai had to pinch his nose to stop himself from falling on his butt in surprise. "You're saying you guys made the Earth? Not God or whatever?"

Ayah gave him a blank, bemused look. "Why else do you think we can do what we do? We were world creators. We created this world and then the humans came from a dying planet and begged us to stay here, and since that was more or less why we created worlds, we said yes. We didn't realize we were signing our end—"

"Humans killed their own—" Tala made a gagging noise. "That can't be right."

"Sounds perfectly right to me," said Emily with a sniff. "What do you think the whole story of killing Jesus is about? People turn about and kill their benefactors every day."

Ayah nodded, though her eyes hadn't left Kai. Her brow had wrinkled with concern, as though she worried what he thought of her. He found that odd, thinking it should be the other way around, especially as a horrible idea started to bloom in his forethoughts.

"Ayah, your family," he said, breaking the eye contact to look to the sky instead. "What happened to them?"

A few twigs cracked as Ayah adjusted in her hidey hole. "My parents were killed trying to protect our family from…people."

A heavy quiet had settled over them, pushing their stomachs to their feet.

"How did you get away?" Tala asked, when no one dared to ask.

"My big brother. He couldn't save our sister, but he managed to get me out before they—" The bush gave a wild crackle as she jerked. "He's coming."

Ayah gave the chirping call of the lark and Tala shrunk deeper into the shadows, Wolfborg pointed upwards. Emily took out her blade as well, though Kai wish she had done so before hand, as the clicking of her blade getting loaded sounded out like fire snaps against the sparse foliage and rock.

Kai, on the other hand, closed his eyes and focused on the warmth deep within him.

 _Dranzer…_

To think that his bitbeast could be the essence of his ancestor. Somehow that knowledge made him feel closer to the power in his blade. He had always known he had a connection to her, but he had never known why. Putting a name to it made it more solid, more weighty, and he thought he could even feel Dranzer's heat rising up within him with the potential energy coiling up in his body for the launch.

Suddenly, Ayah stood straight up, hands to her face, eyes wild. Kai and Tala whirled around to shove her back down, but they had only managed to get their hands on her pant leg and shirt when a sudden shout of alarm rang out over the island. Kai's blood burned and spiked ice cold at once.

Tyson.


	10. Battle of Storms

**Frick, I'm sleepy...**

9

The shouts that tailed right after his didn't make it any better.

"Drigger!"

"Draciel!"

Ayah broke free from their grip, flying over the bush and around the trees.

"What the—how the hell did those idiots—" started Emily.

Kai barely restrained himself from crying out as he leapt to catch Ayah and ended up on his bad leg. Fortunately, Tala had moved to follow her at the same time and managed to catch Kai before he face planted into the bush.

"You too, Dragoon!"

 _Out of all the times to randomly show up to be the hero!_ Kai cursed under his breath even as he planned to throttle the dragon wielder within an inch of his life. _Why can't he ever just_ mind his own business!? And those others—Max and Ray had probably played the perfect enablers as they always had! Ray, at the least, might have put up a fight of logic, but Max would have bounced to front and center with Tyson's harebrained scheme to rescue Kai from a group of blood thirsty assassins. Really!

Before his eyes a memory of Tala's blood arching high to splatter on his face replayed.

Ahead of him, Tala, despite the blood loss, had managed to catch up to Ayah. He threw himself atop her, throwing them both to the ground.

"Are you _crazy?"_ he hissed before he had to pin down her flailing hands. "He sees you out and we're _all_ dead."

A shriek of pain from one of his teammates sent Kai launching over the two of them, regardless. This time he made sure to land on his good leg. Adrenaline pumped through him so hard, his vision throbbed with the force. Everything went cool and hot, quick and slow, the pain of his leg all but vanished. He brought Dranzer around, silver sharpened attack blade gleaming like a mirror in the bright sun.

He could see them now—Ray had fallen to his knees. Max stood on guard before him, face turned upwards to the sky. Tyson couldn't be seen.

With a great heave on his good leg, he burst through the last of the trees, launcher trained to the sky at the black shape high above.

"Dranzer!" he roared, tearing his rip cord so quick sparks flew and his elbow and shoulder popped from the strain.

Once more, flames erupted from the end of his launcher. Dranzer flew up as a brilliant flashing dot in a pinwheel of yellow-white fire. The spirit of the phoenix gave its most piercing battle cry.

Kai barely had the time to register the surreal sight Cain made beating the sky with his enormous, sun swallowing black wings before Dranzer engulfed him in flames. Then Kai blinked and Cain reappeared, a black spot against the ever blue, and Dranzer's spinning disc shot back towards the earth.

Even at the distance, Kai could see Cain's teeth as he bared them at him.

This was it. He was going to die. There was no way Dranzer could protect him from razor sharp winds with her flames. Tyson, Max, and Ray hadn't even the time to know what was going on let alone know what to defend Kai from.

From his right came a great whirlwind of wind, so harsh and sudden he could feel it tear dirt across his face. A circle blur of white-blue shot out before him.

"Kai!"

What he could only describe as a hurricane ensued as Dragoon's winds battled against the razor wind sickles of Cain. The force of the air heaved Kai up and threw him back over the stones and underbrush, knocking the breath out of him from the force of a tree.

 _Tyson._

When the winds died down enough for him to open his eyes again, he saw Tyson standing between him and Cain, his jacket all but flying off him and Dragoon's enormous body of brilliant light curling before him.

 _Out of all the random times for you to play hero,_ he thought, cheeks hurting with the force of his smile. Once more, Tyson had surprised him.

"Yo! Freaky flying dude! What business you got throwing wind-knife-thingies at my friends!"

Kai groaned and peeled himself up from off the ground. He just had to go open his mouth and ruin the moment.

From above came what could only be a mad-man's shriek.

"How dare you force the soul of my people against me! You foul little _beast!"_

Kai looked about frantically for Dranzer and spotted her whirring away where she had landed some ways up the path to the bunker. Somehow, in their traversing the woods for a hiding spot, they had made it half way down to the docks, where the Bladebreakers must have come up from.

Just as he pulled Dranzer around to ready for another attack, Max ran up, Draciel a brilliant purple star before him. In a breath the great armored figure of Draciel rose up, shining just as bright as Tyson's dragon and roaring its defiance. Its blade shot up from beneath it to find its foe, but had to settle for spinning circles around Cain's shadow, earthbound by its own defensive weight.

Ray followed, holding a bloodied arm to his side, but up, kicking, and sharp canines flashing angrily. With a lion-like roar that was almost indecipherable from the battle cry of his bitbeast, Ray called forth the gold and white tiger, which took its place besides the turtle and dragon.

Figuring he better catch up with the times, Kai mustered his fighting spirit.

"Dranzer!"

The phoenix echoed his cry and burst forth from his silver blade in a plume of flames. She shot high above Cain, great red wings cupping between him and the heavens to prevent escape.

Cain gave an inhuman scream of rage and beat his wings down. A howling wind followed, throwing all them back. Drigger was flung into a nearby boulder, which crumbled. Draciel slid back with its master, pushed towards the shore, Dranzer was shoved aside like smoke, and Dragoon could only curl in to protect himself. Kai threw up his arms to protect his face and felt the flashes of pain as dozens of fresh cuts split open. Terror gripped him as he heard the others scream in pain.

 _No. He couldn't let this happen._

"Ayah!" he cried.

But, somehow, remarkably, she was already there, a gentle hand on his shoulder. The wind had ripped off the extra shirt from her head, leaving her brilliant white mane to blow about her and him. Blood dripped from cuts on her cheek.

"Tyson!" she cried, her voice somehow piercing through the wind to the boy just ahead of them. "Can you block his wind again?"

"Hell, yeah, you want sugar with that?" Tyson threw down his arms from his head, flicking off blood in the process. Kai's stomach turned. "Show him who's the real boss of storms, Dragoon!"

A faint glow rose from Tyson's skin, more like an afterimage than real light, and Dragoon uncurled. It raised its scythe like claws, gave a roar, and charged Cain. Being only spirit, Dragoon himself passed through the still flapping figure of Cain, but the wind that followed howled like death itself, tearing small rocks and bushes from the ground.

Ayah's hand clenched his shoulder.

And then she began to sing.

If this had been what she had done before back in the beystadium to set Dranzer on fire, he wished that he had heard it then. It was not so much a coherent song as it was a sound that speared through to his very core and set his soul ablaze. It was the sound of Dranzer, the sound of her whirring metal, the sound of crackling air between her feathers, the sound of flight and war and bravery and freedom.

It was the sound of his very essence.

His world became filled with all the brilliant metallics that the eye could behold. Flames raced so hot they turned colors, from red to white to brilliant sky blue. They caught up in the great gale about Cain, pushing aside Dragoon, alighting trees, setting the very sky on fire.

Knowing he had only a moment before he risked destroying his friends as well, Kai flew past Tyson and into the heart of the storm towards his blade. His feet barely touched the ground as the flames took him up, up, up as hot air will always go.

Cain's wings had caught fire. He screamed and beat them madly. Gusts tore at the tongues of flame, but they only grew more ferocious. They crawled up his arms, down his back, burning off his clothes and blackening his olive skin.

The next breath, Cain was on Kai's level, and it was just him and the black monster in a cyclone of heat and light. Kai couldn't turn his face away as Dranzer's flames began to melt his oppressor's face.

But as skin fell away, a dark smoke rose up, hissing, writhing, taking an eerie form above the snarling, screaming, dying corpse of Cain.

Kai stumbled against the wall of fire. It must be the bitbeast—the bitbeast born from Cain's soul.

But his time ran out. Ayah's song ended and suddenly Kai could feel the flames licking at his skin. The fire didn't just dissipate, it sucked into his pores, wrapping about his flesh, wrapping about the thrumming deep within him.

Then Dranzer was there, filling up his mind, filling up his vision, all scarlet-gold feathers and fierce gaze. He could just see the blackened crumpled form of Cain against the soil. The smoky newborn bitbeast coiled above it.

 _Oh God, the others._ Visions of his friends on fire broke through the intense heat and pain, and he somehow managed to look through Dranzer and around. When he saw that they were still standing, his eyes settled on Ayah, pale, beautiful, and her eyes like mirrors. He saw his reflection in them, and he recoiled in horror. His entire person had been enveloped in flame—he really was on fire! He was being burned alive!

And with that last thought screaming through his head, he fell back into nothingness.

 **To be continued next week in the sequel, "Before Beasts, There Was Water"**


End file.
